US Launches Air Strikes on Iraqi Insurgent Stronghold

American warplanes bombed suspected insurgent bases in western Iraq yesterday close to where fighting flared between rival tribes, leaving dozens dead, according to witnesses.

F-16 jets dropped four bombs on a house outside Husaybah which a US military statement said had been occupied by "terrorists". A second strike in the town destroyed a house and killed an insurgent known as Abu Islam, the statement added.

It said a third strike two hours later in the nearby town of Karabilah killed an unknown number of suspected insurgents, possibly including people who had fled the bombing in Husaybah.

A hospital official in Qaim told Reuters that at least 47 people died in the bombings. Mohammed al-Aani said 35 people were killed in one house and 12 in another. The US military did not provide casualty figures.

The attacks ended a lull in fighting in a remote desert strip on the Syrian border, 200 miles north of Baghdad and a transit point for insurgents and weapons entering Iraq.

Iraqi government officials said that in the same area clashes erupted between the Bumahl tribe, a government ally, and the Karabilah, said to have sided with the resistance. They said 45 died in the fighting but it was not clear if this included the air strike toll.

US troops have reported several "red on red" battles pitting rival tribes against each other in the past year.

Anbar province, a stronghold of the Sunni Arab minority driving the insurgency, is a vast tract of desert which US marines and Iraqi security forces do not control despite regular sweeps. Roadside bombs, ambushes and suicide attacks have made it a lethal posting for dozens of American troops in recent months. Analysts say Anbar, the war's crucible, is at a stalemate.

In the provincial capital, Ramadi, hundreds of Sunnis demonstrated against a draft constitution which will be presented to voters in a referendum on October 15. Sunnis, a dominant minority under Saddam Hussein, say the charter gives too much power to Shias and Kurds, and dilutes Iraq's Arab identity.

Adnan Dulaimi, a Sunni leader, added his voice to the clerics and politicians urging a no vote, saying: "We will do our best to make sure this draft fails at the referendum."

The US ambassador to Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, said yesterday that there could be changes to the charter.